Charlottetown based BioVectra named Canada’s biotech company of the year

While holding the award for Canada’s biotech company of the year, BioVectra president Oliver Technow reminded his staff that the award was not for the company but rather for them.

“This award is for you – the BioVectra family,” said Technow, who accepted the BIOTE Canada Gold Leaf Award during a ceremony at Holland College Wednesday.

BioVectra Inc. is a biotechnology and pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing company that has headquarters and facilities in Charlottetown and recently announced it was expanding operations to Windsor, N.S.

The company has a total of 325 employees.

Technow acknowledged that as the company grows and expands to realize market opportunities as well as possibilities for employees to work elsewhere, BioVectra’s roots remain in Charlottetown.

“This is a part of who we are. This is part of our identity,” he said.

Technow said the company is “an ambassador” for the Island’s bioscience sector and the P.E.I. BioAlliance. He compared the relationship to the African proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child.”

The P.E.I. BioAlliance has created a “safe and healthy and economically conducive” environment for BioVectra (the child) to grow and succeed, he said.

Rory Francis, executive director of the P.E.I. BioAlliance, said companies like BioVectra are the “anchors” and “unsung heroes” of what it takes to grow the biotech industry in Canada.

“You don’t have to be in Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver, obviously, to be a globally successful company in the biotech sector. And, one of the absolutely best examples in Canada is BioVectra,” he said.